<p>NYU is my top choice school, and has been for several months now, but on a recent visit, I went to a Gallatin information session and loved it. However, I'm still not sure if that or just CAS would be the best for me. NYU has programs for the things I want to study in depth (Politics and Metropolitan Studies), but I feel like Gallatin could give me a lot more leeway to combine the two and take more classes in related fields that don't fall under those majors, like Urban Design and Architecture and Sociology. I feel like it would also be nice to have the ability to take classes at all the schools, so it would be easy to take a class at the School of Social Work or at Steinhard if one interested me.
So, as you can probably tell, I'm leaning towards Gallatin now, but does anyone have any opinions as to whether CAS would be better for me? And is one harder to get into than the other? My grades aren't stellar (3.6 UW) but I feel pretty confident in my ability to get into CAS based on my SAT (2180, I'm retaking in November because I'm also applying to schools that will really want a better score than that) and my ECs (extensive involvement in politics and urban planning over the years). Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Your scores seem fine. </p>
<p>I think the difference between Gallatin and CAS has a lot to do with what kind of a person you are, on top of what kind of major you’re seeking. The thing about the Gallatin classes is that you’re required to take Gallatin classes, which tend to be pretty random for even liberal arts standards (like the writing class isn’t called “writing,” it’s called Harlem Renaissance or some random theme that you basically have to write about through the whole semester). And on top of those, you actually have another legit set of liberal arts requirements, which you can fulfill at any school, but the would have to under a particular department (like art or history). So it’s like double the usual liberal arts requirements. </p>
<p>This means you might end up taking a lot of classes that don’t really have anything to do with your major, and as a science or math major, this could be pretty bad especially considering that the Gallatin faculty, while super nice and approachable, are not very knowledge in that area. If you’re a humanities major, this could be your jackpot. But in the words of an adviser I met during my orientation, Gallatin is about “breath” not “depth.” If you read between the lines, Gallatin isn’t a great school for focusing on a particular field, and if you aren’t careful, your concentration (major) could really end up being all over the place… </p>
<p>Keep in mind a lot of schools let you take electives anyway, so just because you’re interested in taking random classes you’re interested in for a semester or two, that doesn’t mean Gallatin is right for you because while you have the freedom to choose your classes, they can’t be totally random and have to somehow cater to your major. Good luck!</p>
<p>I think Gallatin is about bread, or maybe breadth. ;)</p>
<p>@whateveryo Actually, Gallatin has relatively few requirements. Our liberal arts requirements are probably about half of what the rest of the the school takes. As for the Gallatin classes, how much they apply to your concentration depends heavily on what your concentration is. You can certainly find many Gallatin classes involving sociology. I think you could find some urban planning ones too. :)</p>